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THE COMMITTEE ON FEDERAL RELATIONS. 



SPEECH OF PRESrDEMT ELIOT 



FOR AID IN' I in: I'RI.-i;i;VATlo\ OF 1 nr 



OLD SOUTH MEETING-HOUSE. 



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AL'ffRBD \l i l>'iK & 8 OX, PRINTERS, 

:>4 School Stbei > 

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THE COMMITTEE ON FEDERAL RELATIONS. 



SPEECH OF PRESIDENT ELIOT 

FOR AID IN THE PRESERVATION OF THE 

OLD SOUTH MEETING-HOUSE. 



BOSTON: 

ALFRED MUDGE & SON, PRINTERS, 

3 4 School Street. 

1 S 7 8 . 



fid 



IN EXCHANGE 
JAN 5 - 1915 



ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ELIOT, OF HARVARD 

COLLEGE. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — Since I last came here 
in this cause, a year ago, great progress has been made in 
the enterprise. Some obstacles have been removed by time 
and events. Before seeking, as they now do, the help of 
the State, the men and women for whom I have the honor to 
speak have at least shown their faith by their works. They 
have given to the enterprise much more in proportion to 
their means than they ask the State to give. 

It seems so inevitable that every son and daughter of Mas- 
sachusetts, who has read its history, should long to have this 
building preserved, that one cannot but feel astonished at 
the presentation of objections to its preservation. Yet, dur- 
ing the past year and a half, I have had occasion to hear 
many objections ; and as I think some of them may be en- 
countered in the Legislature, when discussion arises upon a 
grant of money for the preservation of this building, I should 
like to rehearse some of them, if the committee have no objec- 
tion, and to indicate the manner in which I have endeavored 
to meet them. 

Events have met some of them. I remember, for instance, 
an eager objection which was made to this undertaking in 
its inception. It was that the city of Boston could not spare 
from its valuation the mercantile buildings that might stand 
upon the site of the old meeting-house ; that no such piece 
of ground in the heart of the city could properly be spared 



from trade and industry. But now the many vacant shops 
and stores within a stone's throw of the Old South effectually 
answer that objection. We have learned that Boston has 
more mercantile buildings than are needed, and that it is not 
the reservation of ground for churches, schools, and parks 
which checks the industry and trade of the city. 

I have often met persons who said, "The price is very ex- 
cessive. It is an outrage that four hundred thousand dollars 
should be paid for that building." Disinterested persons, 
competent to value the site, expressed the opinion that the 
price was uot an unreasonable one at the time it was agreed 
upon. But suppose that the price agreed upon at a moment 
of pressure was eight or ten per cent higher than would 
now be offered, — the money is all applied to a good use ; the 
four hundred thousand dollars go to carry on a valuable 
religious trust, an ancient trust in this commonwealth, in 
whose continuance and prosperity we ought all to rejoice. 
There may be gentlemen who say, "I am not a Calvinist, or 
a Congregationalist ; I am a Roman Catholic, or I am a Bap- 
tist, a Methodist, a Churchman : what interest have I in the 
preservation of the Old South trust?" I think such object- 
ors could learn a lesson from that Massachusetts hero of the 
Revolution, Samuel Adams, with whose labors and achieve- 
ments the Old South is indissolubly connected. At the 
second day's session of the First Continental Congress, a 
question arose as to choice of a chaplain ; Presbyterians, 
Episcopalians, and Congregationalists found themselves face 
to face, and the question was evidently embarrassing. But 
Samuel Adams, the Calvinist and Puritan of the true Old 
South type, arose and said, "I am no bigot; I can hear a 
prayer from a man of piety and virtue, who is at the same 
time a friend to his country." And he moved that an Epis- 
copal clergyman be appointed chaplain ; which was thereupon 
done. The proportions of sects have changed a good deal in 



Massachusetts during the 'ast hundred years, and there are, 
doubtless, many Episcopalians in the present Legislature. 
Wo ask them to remember these words of Samuel Adams, 
when they come to vote upon the question of paying sonic- 
thing to preserve the building in which he taught the people 
of Boston to know their rights and to maintain them. 

I have heard persons say, " We cannot care much for 
this building; for the original pews are not there, — the 
inside is all altered. If it were only the old building un- 
changed, — if we could really sit in the seats where our 
fathers sat, we should have a different feeling about it." 
But why are the original pews, pulpit, and platform not there? 
It is because they were taken out by the troops of King 
George, — by troops who came to subdue and punish Boston 
and Massachusetts. Those pews gave place to the earthen 
ring; of a riding-school. Now, Mr. Chairman, is not this 
reminiscence worth more than the old pews to any Amer- 
ican who has a pride in remembering why the King's troops 
wore sent hither, how they fared here, and how they de- 
parted hence? I hope there are some members of the Legis- 
lature of Irish birth who will bear in mind that English 
soldiers stripped that building, and will wish on that account 
to aid in preserving it. 

I have heard the objection that the meeting-house was an 
old and ugly thing which could not last long; that it would 
be a great deal better if nothing but the spire were kept, or 
if a single stone — some monument — were erected upon 
the vacant lot. Well, gentlemen, we must have the lot 
before we can put upon it the spire or any monument ; and 
the price of $400,000 is the price of the lot, and not of the 
building. For the meeting-house itself only $3,500 were 
paid. That was the whole value of the Old South con- 
sidered as second-hand building materials. 





But there has been a deeper objection urged in my pres- 
ence, by persons whom I had previously supposed to have 
some acquaintance with the history of their country. They 
have said, "Well, after all, what was ever done in 
the Old South? Was much done there? Is there really 
good reason for venerating it? What are the associations with 
the Old South which are so precious?" Now, that is a 
fundamental question. 1 should have to read you the history 
of the Revolution to give an effective answer to such a 
doubt. Time will not permit me to do more than barely 
mention five public meetings held in that building, which 
ought to make it sacred to this people so long as its bricks 
can be made to hold together. 

I mention, first, the meeting of the 14th of June, 1768, 
when the ship-of-war "Romney," sent hither to enforce the 
orders of the Commissioners of Customs, lay in the harbor, 
and excited the indignation of the town by the insolence of its 
officers in impressing sailors, and supporting and harboring 
the commissioners. There had been a commotion in the 
town, with some actual violence, on the 10th, and all but one 
of the commissioners had taken refuge on the "Romney," 
when the people of Boston came together in the Old South 
Church, — Fanenil Hall being to > small for them, — and 
were there addressed by James Otis. The objects of the 
meeting were to prevent impressments, and to cause, 
if possible, the removal of the King's ship from the 
harbor. Then and there James Otis uttered these words, 
after expressing the hope that, in time, the grievances of the 
people might be removed : "If not, and we are called on to 
defend our liberties and privileges, I hope and believe we 
shall, one and all, resist even unto blood." What was the 
town, gentlemen, in w r hich these bold words were uttered, in 
the presence of the forces of the King? It was what we 
should call a village. Its entire population numbered not 



more than sixteen thousand people, while for political pur- 
poses its population did not exceed thirty-five hundred men. 
Yet Otis there spoke of resisting unto blood the power of 
Great Britain; and by mere moral force that meeting accom- 
plished one of its objects. It put a stop to impressments. 

Let me next bring to }'our minds the meeting after the 
Boston massacre. On the 5th of March, 1770, citizens had 
been shot down in our streets by the troops of the King. 
On the 6th a erowded meeting was held in the Old South 
Meeting-house ; and there Samuel Adams filled his fellow- 
townsmen with his own dauntless spirit, and wrought their 
indignation to the pitch of self-possessed and irresistible 
resolve. Commissioned by that meeting, Samuel Adams 
went into the presence of the governor and the commander 
of the royal troops, and demanded the total and immediate 
removal of all the troops from the town. Incomprehensible 
as it seems to us at this distant time, when we consider the 
relative forces of the two parties to the contest, with no 
other power than that of clear determination, Samuel Adams 
and that unanimous meeting in the Old South succeeded, 
and the two offending regiments were withdrawn from the 
outraged town. 

I come next to the tea meeting, or meetings, of Nov. 29th 
and 30th, 1773, when five thousand men of Boston and the 
neighborhood thronged the meeting-house, and resolved that 
no duty should be paid upon the tea, and that it should be sent 
back whence it came. On the 30th, you remember, a proc- 
lamation by the governor was sent to the meeting, command- 
ing them " forthwith to disperse and to surcease all further 
illegal proceedings, at their utmost peril." An ample force- 
was at his disposal for the execution of this order ; but the 
meeting unanimously resolved that they would not disperse, 
and that they would execute their resolutions at the risk of 
their property and their lives. A fortnight later, on the de- 



8 

cisive clay of Dec. 16th, 1773, seven thousand men waited in 
the Old South from morning till night, to see if the tea-ships 
were to be cleared from the port. After nightfall they 
learned that the governor refused to give a pass for the ships ; 
when Samuel Adams, the moderator, arose and said, "This 
meeting can do nothing more to save the country " ; and at 
that word the tea-party started from the porch of the build- 
ing — the same building which we can look upon to-day, and 
which we want to have our children's children see — and 
went down to Griffin's wharf, and threw the tea into the sea. 
That act made Boston the first object of the King's wrath, 
and Massachusetts the first field of the war of the Revo- 
lution. 

The fourth meeting in the Old South, to which I ask your 
attention, is to my mind the most affecting, magnanimous 
and momentous popular meeting ever held in New Eng- 
land. It was the meeting of June 27th and 28th, 1774, 
when the Boston Port Bill had been four weeks in force. 
I have heard it said, as an objection to this effort to 
preserve the building in which that meeting was held, 
that these are hard times, that everybody is poor, that 
the State must be frugal. I agree, gentlemen, that the 
times are hard ; I admit that this generation has never known 
such hard times. But let us compare them, for an instant, in 
our thought, with the times of June, 1774. 

The port had been closed. No vessels but those of the King 
of Great Britain — the armed vessels of his Majesty, which 
weighed heavily upon the desolate harbor — could either 
enter or go out. Boston was a little town of not more than 
thirty-five hundred effective men, almost all of whom were 
traders, mechanics, and sailors. Shipping and commerce being 
the principal interests of the inhabitants, their whole liveli- 
hood was threatened. Ruin stared the people in the 
face. Their communications with England, the West Indies, 



9 

Africa, aud all the ports with which they had been accus- 
tomed to trade, were completely cut off. Moreover, there 
were two regiments of King's troops encamped upon the 
Common, — a thing unprecedented and illegal. In the 
preceding April, Lord North had introduced into Par- 
liament, where it had been triumphantly carried without 
delay, "An Act to better regulate the Province of Massachu- 
setts Bay" ; and that act provided, among other things, that 
the council, which had heretofore been elected, should be 
appointed by the Crown or the governor; that judges and 
sheriffs should be appointed by the Crown ; that juries should 
be named by the sheriffs ; that officers and soldiers of the 
King charged with offences against the people should not be 
tried here, but be removed for trial to some other colony or 
to Great Britaiu. Adams, Haueock, Warren, and all the 
other popular leaders were in instant danger of arrest and 
punishment. The whole town knew these things. They 
had no government, aud no organization of any sort except 
a committee of correspondence ; and they were not sure even 
of the sympathy and support of their sister colonies. 

Under these dreadful circumstances the people assembled in 
our Old South Meeting-house. They, gentlemen, were poor 
indeed, and in great tribulation. And what did they do ? 
The meeting was invaded by the Tories, in the hope of pro- 
curing some concessions from the forlorn townsmen, — in the 
hope that a submission might be extorted from this suffering 
people ; and Samuel Adams was obliged to leave the chair, 
and contend in debate with the party proposing submission. 
They were not content with one day's debate ; they had a 
second. Every blandishment was used by the supporters of 
the government ; every motive for concession was set before 
the meeting ; fear, selfish interest, and the lingering senti- 
ment of loyalty prompted them to submission ; nothing but 
commercial and industrial ruin was before them if they per- 



10 

sisted in rebellion; and yet, by an immense majority, they 
refused to censure their committee of correspondence, and 
encouraged them "to continue steadfast in the way of well- 
doing." 

I hope, gentlemen, that it will not be alleged that the 
Massachusetts of to-day is too poor to honor those men, by 
keeping as their best monument the building which wit- 
nessed their self-sacrificing constancy. They acted for pos- 
terity, — for us. Let us preserve the scene of their trial and 
of their triumph. Let us remember, too, what Samuel 
Adams said so truly of himself: " For my part, I have been 
wont to converse with poverty ; and however disagreeable a 
companion she may be thought to be by the affluent and lux- 
urious who never were acquainted with her, I can live hap- 
pily with her the remainder or my days, if I can thereby 
contribute to the redemption of my country." [Applause.] 
Verily, gentlemen, no times are so fit as hard times in which 
to commemorate Samuel Adams. Will not the people count 
it a privilege to make some real sacrifices in his honor? 

There was a fifth great meeting in the Old South. It was 
in 1775, on the fifth of March, the anniversary of the Bos- 
ton massacre, and Joseph Warren was the orator, and Sam- 
uel Adams the moderator. Forty or fifty officers of the 
British army and navy were conspicuously seated on the 
platform and the pulpit stairs, and the meeting-house was 
thronged with people. Warren was to speak of the killing 
and wounding by the King's troops of a few citizens of Bos- 
ton on the night of the 5th of March, 1770. Al- 
though Lexington was still six weeks distant, Boston was 
already occupied, like an enemy's town, by the army of the 
King, and the harbor was in possession of vessels of war; 
yet Warren took for his subject the evil of standing armies 
in a time of peace ; and he spoke heroically and convincingly, 
— so heroically, so movingly, that not even that band of 



11 

English officers, whose feelings against the rebellious popu- 
lace were exasperated to the highest pitch, ventured to inter- 
rupt him. They all listened in silence until the close, 
though his words were as bold and free as if he himself, the 
moderator, and all the principal men there present, were not 
in immediate danger of arrest and transportation to Eng- 
land, — as if the little province could be expected to cope 
with the most formidable power of the world, — as if he 
knew how his own name was to ring along the centuries. 
" Our country is in danger," he said ; " our enemies are 
numerous and powerful. You are to decide the important 
question on which rests the happiness and liberty of mil- 
lions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves. . . . My 
fellow-citizens, I know you want not zeal or fortitude. You 
will maintain your rights, or perish in the generous 
struggle." 

But, perhaps, the sceptical thought occurs to some of you, 
— after all, were these Old South meetings events of real im- 
portance ; they make brave pictures in the imagination, but 
had they at the time any grave significance? Let Lord 
George Germaine and the English ministry answer that 
doubt. In March, 1774, Germaine said in Parliament, f; Put 
an end to their town meetings," and the ministry of Lord 
North brought in and carried in due course the Act, already 
referred to, " for the better regulating the province of the 
Massachusetts Bay," one provision of which forbade free 
town meetings, except two a year for the choice of officers 
and representatives, and for no other business. No other 
assembling of a town was permitted under this act except by 
written leave of the governor. Such was the contempora- 
neous English estimate of the significance of Massachusetts 
town meetings. Yet Parliament were far from comprehend- 
ing what those meetings proved. They proved nothing less 
than that the people of the province were tit to be free ; tln\ 



12 

demonstrated that the mass of the people were clear-headed, 
self-possessed, resolute, and martial, and that their leaders 
were incorruptible, inflexible, and zealous for liberty. More- 
over, they consolidated opinion, won sympathy, fed enthusi- 
ism, and developed political sense. Now the Old South 
meetings, which I have mentioned, were the most memorable 
meetings of the Revolutionary period. 

Finally, gentlemen, let me meet an objection which may 
be plausibly expressed somewhat in this wise : " Shall fifty 
thousand hard-earned dollars be wrung from an over-bur" 
dened people for a mere piece of sentiment? " The founda- 
tions of society are sentiments. The ultimate causes of in- 
dustrial and commercial prosperity are the sentiments of 
courage, honor, and good faith. Are not current events 
teaching us how completely all profitable industry and com- 
merce depend upon the moral qualities of men and communi- 
ties? The cause of the existing national distress is not phys- 
ical, but moral. Our ports are open, our highways broad 
and free ; the products of our fields and mines abound ; no 
rumors of wars have terror for us. The cause of our dis- 
tress in the midst of material abundance is what the Old 
South called sinfulness, — the lack of the mere sentiments 
of fortitude, faith, and duty. What this country needs is a 
new flood of righteous sentiments carried into action. There 
is no more effective public method of fostering for the bene- 
fit of the present and the future the virtues which uphold 
the state than by honorably commemorating conspicuous ex- 
hibitions of these virtues in the past. As we would have 
men hereafter ready to die in defence of our country's flag, 
we gather reverently the flags around which men have in 
our day died, and preserve them with costly care. As all 
states experience crises in which they rely for preservation 
upon that splendid spirit of military honor and devotion 
which has been of infinite service to civilization, the state 



13 

rightly marks memorable battle fields, and builds monu- 
ments to its soldiers and sailors. So if Massachusetts 
desires to find in later generations the civil courage which 
resists oppression and wrong at the risk of life, lib- 
erty, and fortune, let her hold in honorable remem- 
brance the men who, at her very birth, conspicuously 
illustrated this virtue, and let her contribute to preserve the 
venerable building which witnessed their struggles and their 
victories. And as she is grateful for pious founders, as she 
hopes that righteous and faithful men may not cease, let 
Massachusetts help to save from destruction a famous shrine 
of that sturdy religious faith to which she unquestionably 
owes her own existence, and which has done more for civil 
liberty than any other religious opinion which the world has 
known. 

The Old South is emphatically a local monument. It 
reminds us that in the glorious conflict for national inde- 
pendence, Boston was the first object of Great Britain's 
wrath, and Massachusetts fields the first to be stained with 
blood. Sure am I that the sentiment of local pride is a 
strong suppoit to any people, to keep them in the way of 
virtue; and that monuments to the great words and deeds 
of ancestors foster that wholesome pride. Are we not glad 
that Boston and Massachusetts paid the interest on their 
debts in gold all through the civil war? In that strait, local 
pride helped us greatly to do our duty. Do we not wish 
that all the States, and the United States, were as proud as 
Massachusetts ? [Applause.] 

It seems to me that Massachusetts should take part in this 
grateful work for her own credit and honor, — that she may 
pay a fitting tribute to the virtues and achievements of gen- 
erations to which she owes her being. No one can be more 
opposed than I am, as a general rule, to subsidies paid from 
the public treasury to private corporations, whether indus- 



14 

trial, commercial, or educational ; but a contribution to keep 
this venerable building as a public monument cannot be 
likened to these objectionable subsidies. The Old South 
commemorates the birth of the State ; it prolongs the mem- 
ory of the men who founded this precious institution which 
we call " Massachusetts " ; it is a unique memorial of heroic 
times. 

The plain duty of our generation is to save that building, 
that it may stand before posterity as long as its stout old 
walls will endure. It cannot last forever ; and what will 
remain when, centuries hence, it crumbles to decay ? The 
hallowed ground will remain, and then another generation 
will gladly take up the work we now begin. They shah 
clear the ground, and set up a stone on a little green in the 
heart of a then ancient city, and on it write names as well 
known to them as to us, — the heroic names of Otis, Warren, 
and Adams ! [Applause.] 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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